In this little world, the spirit of cooperation is alive and well.
在这个小世界里，合作精神活得好好的。
For the fairies, it’s just another cook-off. No politics. We’re all friends here.
对于精灵们来讲啊，这不过就是一场厨艺的比赛。没有政治哦。我们都是好朋友。
Are you ready for a whole lot of crab?
诸君，准备好胃了吗？
Unfortunately, our little world where these little ones and their friends exist in isn’t the real world. And here? Here, the battle for the presidency rage ever-on.
可惜的是, 我们美舰本的世界,不是现实生活中世界。在我们的世界里，初选的战火仍然焚烧着。
The election is coming.
选举要来啦。
It’s pretty clear that from the GOP perspective, Trump has capitalized on his great victory in New York. His victory was a clean sweep for the five mid-Atlantic states, and it is now that the never-Trump folks that has been dealt a clear blow. They seem to be throwing everything they have against the guy, and nothing, I repeat, nothing seems to be working so far.
(Note: Both this image and the Democratic one below comes from the New York Times)
又是一次初选，又是一次特朗普横扫。纽约吊打对手就算了，这下中大西洋地区的也完全弄到手了。就连黑他的政治评论员都不得不正视这是个大胜利的结果。如同我上面所说，这帮对手们什么压箱底的东西都搬出来对付神皇了。然而，好像并没有什么效果。
Cruz and Kasich announced an alliance initially, but that … might have fallen apart really quickly. A casual glance at our usual fans (mostly native East Asian folks) have raised the gossip of the Trump campaign resembling that of Oda Nobunaga, a legendary Japanese daimyo (warlord) who managed to break many such alliances arranged against him.
说起这个，我在某论坛上看到了特朗普包围网。这个梗当时我笑翻了。想了想后还是过来分享给英文读者比较好。对，确实凯西克和克鲁斯二人短暂的形成了联盟，然而这个联盟的崩溃速度也估计破了纪录了。所以暂时不说。莫非特朗普真的如同织田信长一样，至少对付包围网上有出乎意料的运气？
Right now, on the eve of Indiana, Trump has secured the endorsement of legendary basketball coach Bobby Knight. The polls look good, and is looking better day by day. Arrayed against him is a Cruz buoyed by Mike Pence, governor of Indiana. It’s about the most lukewarm endorsement that I’ve ever seen, since he’s actually sorta-kinda endorsing both.
下周印第安纳初选。克鲁斯已经得到了州长麦克 盆斯的支持。特朗普呢？拿到了传说中神迹篮球队教练鲍比 奈特的支持。目前民意调查中也是一线上升中。另外吐槽下，州长支持克鲁斯，是我有生以来见过最无力的政治支持。他要不加一嘴我要投克鲁斯的话我真的在怀疑这货到底站谁队的。
I again find it highly ironic that Cruz is now the establishment candidate. Strange times makes for very strange bedfellows.
还是啊，吐槽下。克鲁斯怎么成了共和党大佬的候选人呢？果然病急乱投医啊。
Kasich has been more or less relegated to the sidelines in our pieces at this point. Even Ohioans want him to drop out, and Trump’s nickname for him, 1-in-38, while mean, is nonetheless completely accurate.
凯斯克啊？真的，不是我们故意忽略他，而是他真的目前就在边上卖萌。俄亥俄的选民们都想让他退了，并且特朗普给他的外号，1：38（这个就是吐槽说目前投了38个州他只赢了一个），有点无力，但同时也是很正确的啊。
Unfortunately we’ll not have time to illustrate Indiana’s primary. Not if we want to make California/New Jersey and try to get it out on time. But be assured that I’ll be watching.
可惜我们没时间来画印第安纳的初选了。如果我们要想赶上六月的加州-新泽西等的话，我们需要现在就开始准备。不过，我肯定会好好看着哦。
Now, the democratic side:
民主党这边啊？
A number of Bernie supporters have messaged me telling me that I have been fooled by the MSM narrative and isn’t fair to Bernie at all. I uh, am not entirely sure how to answer that.
我最近被老爷子的粉丝刷的有点忙不过来了。对不起，我不知道我怎么回答你的观点，因为当你们指责我说我被大媒体糊弄或者对老爷子不公平的时候，我真的不知道怎么说好。
What I will say, based on my research, is that the vast majority of news sources have stated unequivocally that Bernie’s shot at being the presidential nominee died at NY, and was buried at the Pennsylvania-Maryland-Delaware-Connecticut-Rhode Island run last week. He won one, but it wasn’t enough to cut into Hillary’s lead.
从我的角度来看呢，大多数的新闻都说，总书记的总统梦在纽约死了，而最近的这五州的初选只是给棺材上埋了一层土。他赢了个罗德岛没错，但希拉里还是领先者呢。
Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t potentially shady stuff going on. Hillary’s Correct the Record internet brigade exists and is out in full-force, and I’m just glad that we aren’t significant enough to warrant her eye yet. There’s definitely some very shady allegations around New York. Some sources mention that hundreds of thousands of voters were locked out or have experienced troubles with the primary process. In other cases, we seem to have some very statistically questionable situations where I believe that Bernie supporters have genuinely been cheated or have reason to believe that there might not be fair play at certain polling situations.
我可不是说希拉里赢这个是理所当然的。网络水军Correct the Record不说，我只是很开心我们没大到需要她来给我们惹麻烦的成都。然而，纽约确实有点不对劲。有些资料说有几十万选民以及选票遗失或者出问题。其他地方我也看到了很多各种报道说可能会有不公平。
I have seen nothing but condescension, derision, and casual dismissal from the other camp. Seriously. Voter fraud and voter suppression is a big deal. Maybe it deserves a second look, or at least a serious effort to address what might be problematic?
我想吐槽下希拉里那方同情同情人家有错吗？我除了支持老爷子的那边提出这个问题以外，媒体都是直接无视，或者吐槽，或者嘲笑他的支持者。各位知道这个是实际问题吧？如果要有选票作假的话，这是值得看看的。真的，这东西不好笑啊。
What’s far more interesting to me is how the primary atmosphere has changed. The Sanders subreddit where I used to go for a lot of pro-Bernie sources seem to be dying. I used to see posts with thousands and thousands of upvotes, but now the responses are a lot more muted. I’m glad he’s not dropping out just yet, because he’s awfully fun to draw and provides a nice contrast, but I can tell that something’s disappeared from that site.
并且更重要的是，你知道，初选的环境完全变了。老爷子的Reddit我以前一般都是去那里找信息，然而我感觉那地方死气沉沉，远远没有一个月前那样活跃。我很高兴他不准备退场 – 画他很好玩哦。然而，你知道吗？我知道那个网站丢了东西，可能再也找不回来了。
For Madam Secretary, I literally just need to go to any major news network and head to the politics section. It’s incredibly easy to find pieces – more or less toeing the party line – on her, and so I feel like I have a pretty easy way to figure out how we want to depict her in our pieces.
至于国务卿大人啊？简单。我去她自己网站，啊不，说错了，任何一个大型媒体去政治区基本上都是说她的好话。批评也是按照党派界限，支持更是如同官方代言一样。所以我感觉她的梗其实比较容易。
For Trump? Again, it’s so easy for me to find pieces that attack the guy, all I have to do is go on my feed or again, go to any politics section and you will find a yuuuuge amount of pieces decrying that Trump is this and that and this and that.
特朗普啊？找他的反面信息特别容易。去社会媒体或者政治区基本上都是喷他的。这个很简单。
But what I have noticed is a surging trend, mostly on social media, that’s beginning to show signs of change. As usual, go to the news and you’ll find how TERRIBLE and IGNORANT and STUPID and you get the idea it is on anything Trump brings up. But as an American, I think I’ve got the right to judge for myself about how good or bad a candidate is, no?
然而我发现一点，就是…有可能人开始觉醒了。至少我看到反对特朗普的东西开始越来越理性化，人性化，甚至开始改变角度。主流媒体确实还是那样，但你知道，作为美国人，我有权利来让我自己选择到底这家伙是好是坏。不是吗？
For all the controversies the man brings, there are some very concrete issues pertaining to our country that he’s dragged out screaming and kicking into the light for everyone to see. I’ll be honest, as a medical student, I can tell you that we much prefer the operation – no matter how hard it is – than to the post-mortem analysis to the family. I think the same applies to America. Look at his foreign policy statement, for instance. Tell me if that’s not stuff we need to seriously think about, because I know I’m not.
所以，无论这家伙到底怎么低俗，他毕竟说了很多实际事情，而这些事情是需要解决的。从一个医学生角度来说，我们宁可给病人做个难手术，也不喜欢给病人家属解释死亡原因。我认为这个比喻跟美国很恰当。看看他的对外政策吧。看看，告诉我这是不是应该考虑的观点？
Plus, my family’s always told me. If you know someone’s gonna lose, why are you telling them?
最后，我家里人总告诉我，如果你敢肯定你对手要输的话，为啥告诉他们呢？
Right, a few bits on the picture. I’m gonna say that we thought a lot about things, and yes, a crab bake/party is what we ended up using to represent the mid-Atlantic primaries. The crabs are rather symbolic, yes, but as always, I’m going to let you read into it and decide how you’d like to interpret our art instead.
好了，稍微解释下画。这次螃蟹大烧烤是马里兰滨州等地的传统，也是我们用来描述这次初选的梗。螃蟹确实有象征意义，但你们可以自己看，考虑考虑这里的螃蟹代表什么吧。
There is one new historical figure (fairy, rather) displayed rather prominently. The hint I’m gonna give you is the cape. It’s a well-known nickname of a rather interesting individual, and I’m going to leave it there.
这次我们一个新的精灵（历史人物）。我唯一的提醒，就是看他的披风。这是他有名的一个外号的梗，我别的就不说什么了。
This is mostly for our non-American readers, since I really, really doubt anyone wouldn’t know the two particular types of spices are. We brought Louisiana in because we didn’t have time to draw her primary (though a careful look and you’ll find her buried in Super Tuesday’s art), but also because of a recent development in the endorsement game. Yeah. I should note that it take upwards of hundreds of hours for each of these pictures, and let’s just say I was pleasantly surprised and shocked by the development.
另外，主要给我们非美国读者解释下，因为我感觉美国人一般都会知道这两个料。左边那个是马里兰的有名海鲜调料，而下面的那个是路易斯安娜州的代表性品牌。这次把路易斯安娜带来一来是因为她超级周二我们把她埋在了画里。其次就是有新型政治情况，所以她值得露面。毕竟我们每次一个这类的画至少要上百小时，所以早就开始的时候就能看到这些，真的太棒了。
You’ve already met Pennsy in an earlier piece. Here, we’ve got both Mary (Maryland) and Weavy (West Virginia). I’ve received a lot of questions about what exactly our shipgirls are. The answer to that question is that they aren’t mechanical anthropomorphism of warships. Not quite. I would describe them as empowered young women (empowered in the literal sense, since these girls have to fight giant sea monsters often at melee range) whose pasts and experiences are intricately linked to the heroic traditions of many USN warships. However, just as our girls are not steel and iron, their character traits are often connected directly to a lot of other things, from their home states to adopted homes (in-story or historical) to historical events.
上次你已经见到宾夕了。这里呢，我们有玛丽（马里兰）和惟惟（西弗吉尼亚）。我最近得到了很多问题问我们舰娘到底是什么。我想表示至少从我的角度，我们舰娘不是机娘。我会用西方的方式来描述她们，就是有超级能力的年轻女性（真的有超级能力，毕竟她们要跟巨大海怪作战）。然而这些妹子确实跟历史上她们同名的美国海军舰船有密切的联系。她们的背景以及经历肯定跟这些有关的。当然，从另外一个角度，她们的性格很多情况下也跟其他东西联系起来，从她们的家乡（州）或者居住地或者历史事件或者其他等等。
Cal (the blonde with sunglasses and a bikini top), for instance, is preppy, energetic, and a bit of a valley girl. She’s designed in such a way so that when someone looks at her, they can go, oh, yeah, I can totally see her as someone from California. Of course, it becomes a matter of semantics among our more esoteric fans about just what a “shipgirl” means or what it means. In sum, it’s perfectly okay to me if see them as anthropomorphisms of states or warships. I think any creative work should naturally allow the reader to make any interpretations as they’d like. To me, however, they’ll always be just as they are. Our girls.
卡尔，举个例子，是个很高能量很元气的Valley girl（注，这个是加州的梗，基本是美国文化一部分，类似于你们理解东北人或者广东人或者上海人这样的一个地区性的概念）。然而我设计她们的时候，我的目的其实只是希望当读者看到她的时候，认识她后，会点头说，哦，对啊对啊，她确实像一个从加州出来的妹子。当然你可以辩论舰娘是什么，是舰更多还是娘更多，但我认为你怎么看我们作品是你的观点。你想把她们当作州或者舰船没问题，毕竟每一个作品都有自己的独特观赏角度嘛。但，从我的角度来讲呢？她们永远会是我们的舰娘，我们的妹子。
In other cases, of course, such as Tasha and O’bannon, we just like those two characters and put them in. They’ve got nothing to do with the primary whatsoever. Actually, if you look at it in the context of the picture, they’re just (along with Cal, who loves free food) here to share a few crabs.
另外两个来卖萌的（塔莎和奥班农）这俩只是我们喜欢。她们跟初选没关系，只是跟卡尔性格一样过来蹭饭的。嘿，别忘了我们画这个是自愿的嘛。自然我们会做让我们高兴的事啦。:)
Hey, we gotta have our fun too. It can’t be all serious. 🙂
See you soon. 🙂
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